Need help with building a budget PC

[91MrShan]

Budget (including currency): less than 500USD, the less the better

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: CSGO only

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

I have an old gtx1060 from 2016, I want to make a good use of it and dont want to waste this thing. The ONLY game I'll be playing is CSGO, 1280×960 with maybe 144 or 240hz monitor. And I need some help with what CPU, cpu cooler(def air cooled), motherboard I should buy?

[SpookyCitrus]

5 minutes ago, 91MrShan said:

1280×960 with maybe 144 or 240hz monitor

Do you mean a 1920x1080p display. As far as I know they don't make 1280x960 monitors let alone ones with 144hz or higher refresh rates. That's so niche not even Asus would make one. That would be like a 18" squared desktop monitor if you use the proper aspect ratio. 

 

So what you really mean is like a 1920x1080p 24" 144hz or higher display correct?

I don't see why you wouldn't a 1060 should be able to handle that no problem.

[91MrShan]

6 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Do you mean a 1920x1080p display. As far as I know they don't make 1280x960 monitors let alone ones with 144hz or refresh rates. That's so niche not even Asus would make one. That would be like a 18" squared desktop monitor if you use the proper aspect ratio. 

 

So what you really mean is like a 1920x1080p 24" 144hz or higher display correct?

I don't see why you wouldn't a 1060 should be able to handle that no problem.

yeah 1080p display, i am just so used to typed out my csgo res

[91MrShan]

3 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Do you mean a 1920x1080p display. As far as I know they don't make 1280x960 monitors let alone ones with 144hz or refresh rates. That's so niche not even Asus would make one. That would be like a 18" squared desktop monitor if you use the proper aspect ratio. 

 

So what you really mean is like a 1920x1080p 24" 144hz or higher display correct?

I don't see why you wouldn't a 1060 should be able to handle that no problem.

im thinking about like an R5 3600 or i5 8400f and with some air cooled cooler. what MoBo and cooler that u recommend for those 2 cpus?

[SpookyCitrus]

13 minutes ago, 91MrShan said:

im thinking about like an R5 3600 or i5 8400f and with some air cooled cooler. what MoBo and cooler that u recommend for those 2 cpus?

Both of those CPUs are dated. I'd suggest getting something current. Like a Ryzen 5 5500, or a i3 -12100f or better. $500 isn't actually a terrible budget for just CPU, CPU Cooler, and motherboard. 

 

The $500 budget is just for those right? Or do you need a Case, PSU, Ram, and storage drive too? Do you only have the GPU right now for this build?

[Zando_]

4 minutes ago, 91MrShan said:

im thinking about like an R5 3600 or i5 8400f and with some air cooled cooler. what MoBo and cooler that u recommend for those 2 cpus?

i3 12100/12100F would be a much better pick. Better single core than both and that's what CSGO cares for AFAIK. Something like so: 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yrb378

CPU: Intel Core i3-12100F 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($106.92 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock B660M Phantom Gaming 4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($107.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($34.97 @ Amazon) 
Storage: TEAMGROUP MP34 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($48.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Thermaltake Versa H17 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($44.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX650M (2021) 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.99 @ Best Buy) 
Total: $423.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-04-03 13:31 EDT-0400

 

You can go slightly cheaper on the mobo and storage, but you only save around $20 total while making a lot of compromises so I don't think that savings is worth it.

[91MrShan]

7 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Both of those CPUs are dated. I'd suggest getting something current. Like a Ryzen 5 5500, or a i5 -12100f or better. $500 isn't actually a terrible budget for just CPU, CPU Cooler, and motherboard. 

 

The $500 budget is just for those right? Or do you need a Case, PSU, Ram, and storage drive too? Do you only have the GPU right now for this build?

I already have an old pc for case, an extra NVME M.2 SSD. I just need some recommendations on the CPU and CPU Cooler prefer air cooled, MoBo, RAM, and power

[RevGAM]

Peerless Assassin 120 with that,  @Zando_?

[91MrShan]

7 minutes ago, Zando_ said:

i3 12100/12100F would be a much better pick. Better single core than both and that's what CSGO cares for AFAIK. Something like so: 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yrb378

CPU: Intel Core i3-12100F 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($106.92 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock B660M Phantom Gaming 4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($107.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($34.97 @ Amazon) 
Storage: TEAMGROUP MP34 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($48.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Thermaltake Versa H17 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($44.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX650M (2021) 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.99 @ Best Buy) 
Total: $423.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-04-03 13:31 EDT-0400

 

You can go slightly cheaper on the mobo and storage, but you only save around $20 total while making a lot of compromises so I don't think that savings is worth it.

Thanks for the list, and for cooler that the cooler came within the box will do good on the cpu, right? or if i want a little better any 4-6 heat pipes should work, right?  

[91MrShan]

2 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

Peerless Assassin 120 with that,  @Zando_?

thank you so much for the help

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, 91MrShan said:

Thanks for the list, and for cooler that the cooler came within the box will do good on the cpu, right? or if i want a little better any 4-6 heat pipes should work, right?  

Yeah, these quad cores do not put out much heat. The stock cooler is fine. Coworker has the non-F version, so same CPU and same cooler, he has felt 0 need to upgrade it. 

3 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

Peerless Assassin 120 with that,  @Zando_?

See above, the stock cooler with the i3 is fine. 

[RevGAM]

2 minutes ago, 91MrShan said:

Thanks for the list, and for cooler that the cooler came within the box will do good on the cpu, right? or if i want a little better any 4-6 heat pipes should work, right?  

You can use that but if the temps are throttling it,  go with the ThermalRight Peerless Assassin.  It's cheap and really good. 

 

1 minute ago, Zando_ said:

See above, the stock cooler with the i3 is fine. 

Thanks. 

[SpookyCitrus]

16 minutes ago, 91MrShan said:

I already have an old pc for case, an extra NVME M.2 SSD. I just need some recommendations on the CPU and CPU Cooler prefer air cooled, MoBo, RAM, and power

Something like this would work. You could easily fit a 5600 or better CPU as well within your budget. The AM4 stock cooler is decent enough to not really need an upgrade, if you do want to just to be safe you could get the Assassin cooler I linked with the intel build.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($98.98 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: Asus Prime B450M-A II Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($79.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: ADATA XPG Z1 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($34.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX650M (2021) 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.99 @ Best Buy) 
Total: $293.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-04-03 13:55 EDT-0400

 

Intel equivalent. With upgraded cooler if wanted. The intel stock coolers are pretty ass.

 

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-12100F 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($106.92 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Assassin X 120 Refined SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($19.89 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B660M DS3H AX DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: ADATA XPG Z1 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($34.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX650M (2021) 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.99 @ Best Buy) 
Total: $341.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-04-03 13:57 EDT-0400

 

[Zando_]

2 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Power Supply: SeaSonic S12III 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($69.00 @ B&H) 

Is that an updated S12III or still the old one? IIRC the old ones were sort of dangerous for modern hardware as of 2017, I'd imagine they haven't gotten any better. 

[SpookyCitrus]

1 minute ago, Zando_ said:

Is that an updated S12III or still the old one? IIRC the old ones were sort of dangerous for modern hardware as of 2017, I'd imagine they haven't gotten any better. 

Pretty sure it's the new one, not positive though. I can change it to a different unit.

[91MrShan]

8 minutes ago, Zando_ said:

Yeah, these quad cores do not put out much heat. The stock cooler is fine. Coworker has the non-F version, so same CPU and same cooler, he has felt 0 need to upgrade it. 

See above, the stock cooler with the i3 is fine. 

Thank you for your info

[91MrShan]

7 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Something like this would work. You could easily fit a 5600 or better CPU as well within your budget. The AM4 stock cooler is decent enough to not really need an upgrade, if you do want to just to be safe you could get the Assassin cooler I linked with the intel build.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($98.98 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: Asus Prime B450M-A II Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($79.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: ADATA XPG Z1 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($34.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12III 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($69.00 @ B&H) 
Total: $282.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-04-03 13:41 EDT-0400

 

Intel equivalent. With upgraded cooler if wanted. The intel stock coolers are pretty ass.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-12100F 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($106.92 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Assassin X 120 Refined SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($19.89 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B660M DS3H AX DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: ADATA XPG Z1 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($34.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12III 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($69.00 @ B&H) 
Total: $330.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-04-03 13:47 EDT-0400

Thank you for the components list above. 

[SpookyCitrus]

Just now, 91MrShan said:

Thank you for the components list above. 

No problem, I recently edited the lists in my post to include a better PSU. If you plan to use one of them keep that in mind.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Buy as much stuff as possible used but prefer not to buy used storage unless new is a ripoff and you are buying a dram ssd

 

go for a 5500 + used b3/450 + 16gb ddr4

 

Used b3/450 go for 50-70$ for decent midrangers like the pro4/steel legend, gaming plus/tomahawk, aorus elite/gaming *insert number*, etc.

 

Cooler wise a cheap 20$ tower will do though if you can find a peerless assassin/phantom spirit for 30$ prefer that instead. Technically you can buy a 2$ 775 copper core and ziptie it onto the cpu but think thatll be more trouble than its worth

 

rams wise if you get a board with 2 slots then buy 2 8gb hma41gu6afr8n double sided hynix 4gbit afr, a 4 slot board buy 4 4gb hma451u6afr8n which is the same thing but single sided in 4gb stick form, should be <20$ for 8gb and <10$ for 4gb sticks.

 

Storage wise whatevers the cheapest dram gen3 drive you can find (usually its a 670p or a80)

 

Case wise whatever used <10$ office case will do, just take the sidepanel off so the parts dont suffocate, may be able to find better airflow ones for abit more

 

Psu wise <650w new psus go for a reasonable price so look at 600w units like the toughpower gx2 last i saw as 55$ according to pcpp. If new psu prices are still in shambles loads of used 80+ bronze and gold units for cheap (750w gold for 50$ kind of pricing)

 

 

In terms of tuning cpu wise set vcore to 1.3 or 1.35v and run static allcore 4.6-4.8ghz

 

Ram wise just set some generic 22-26-26-40 or whatever primaries they dont matter that much anyways CL and twcl keep em loose to reduce volt requirement, set freq to 4000-4200 and set vdimm to 1.45v, once you can boot and freq is stable tighten trfc trc trrd-l/s and tfaw which give you most of your performance but the same rank different rank different dimm tertiaries also give a noticable performance boost, you can tighten cas abit if you want but dont dump voltage into it. You will have to stability test which takes a little while so i prefer doing shorter stability tests (5 mins or so) alongside adjusting multiple timings at once (usually do this for the tertiaries since theres a bunch of them) though beware of the latter as that can make troubleshooting abit of a PITA if you adjust too many timings at once

 

Gpu wise you can use msi afterburner for tuning

[91MrShan]

1 hour ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Buy as much stuff as possible used but prefer not to buy used storage unless new is a ripoff and you are buying a dram ssd

 

go for a 5500 + used b3/450 + 16gb ddr4

 

Used b3/450 go for 50-70$ for decent midrangers like the pro4/steel legend, gaming plus/tomahawk, aorus elite/gaming *insert number*, etc.

 

Cooler wise a cheap 20$ tower will do though if you can find a peerless assassin/phantom spirit for 30$ prefer that instead. Technically you can buy a 2$ 775 copper core and ziptie it onto the cpu but think thatll be more trouble than its worth

 

rams wise if you get a board with 2 slots then buy 2 8gb hma41gu6afr8n double sided hynix 4gbit afr, a 4 slot board buy 4 4gb hma451u6afr8n which is the same thing but single sided in 4gb stick form, should be <20$ for 8gb and <10$ for 4gb sticks.

 

Storage wise whatevers the cheapest dram gen3 drive you can find (usually its a 670p or a80)

 

Case wise whatever used <10$ office case will do, just take the sidepanel off so the parts dont suffocate, may be able to find better airflow ones for abit more

 

Psu wise <650w new psus go for a reasonable price so look at 600w units like the toughpower gx2 last i saw as 55$ according to pcpp. If new psu prices are still in shambles loads of used 80+ bronze and gold units for cheap (750w gold for 50$ kind of pricing)

 

 

In terms of tuning cpu wise set vcore to 1.3 or 1.35v and run static allcore 4.6-4.8ghz

 

Ram wise just set some generic 22-26-26-40 or whatever primaries they dont matter that much anyways CL and twcl keep em loose to reduce volt requirement, set freq to 4000-4200 and set vdimm to 1.45v, once you can boot and freq is stable tighten trfc trc trrd-l/s and tfaw which give you most of your performance but the same rank different rank different dimm tertiaries also give a noticable performance boost, you can tighten cas abit if you want but dont dump voltage into it. You will have to stability test which takes a little while so i prefer doing shorter stability tests (5 mins or so) alongside adjusting multiple timings at once (usually do this for the tertiaries since theres a bunch of them) though beware of the latter as that can make troubleshooting abit of a PITA if you adjust too many timings at once

 

Gpu wise you can use msi afterburner for tuning

This is very specific, and thank you for the information above. This can help me alot.